03/08/2013

Our reader Kwesi sent in this clip of his recent wedding at the Ford Plantation in Savannah and it's just stunning in every way.

Writes Kwesi:

"I absolutely LOVE this site. I saw your favorite gay wedding videos and thought to send my own to you. Jackson and I got married in Savannah in November. We hashtagged the wedding #bestinterracialweddingonaplantation! I just thought to send it along your way. I love seeing the constant support of gay marriage throughout our country, and the many ways these unions take place."

A group of parents is demanding answers from the Gresham Barlow School District board, claiming that they're not renewing Principal Tom Klansnic's contract because he's gay. Klansnic has worked in the district for nearly ten years, KATU reports:

Denise McCloud is among the parents standing up for Klansnic to find out why his contract is not being renewed. She’s leading a group of parents to attend Thursday night’s district board meeting to find answers. “You know that’s what we’re trying to teach them. That we all stand up together,” she said. “That we all need to be looking out for each other. That we have each other’s back.”

Klansnic's lawyer is considering a lawsuit and believes that indeed, his sexuality is at the root of it:

“Mr. Klansnic went through a divorce and he revealed openly that he was gay. And his relationship with the distict changed almost immediately.”

"I’m not going to kiss ass with somebody like that...I felt that what he said about the gay community was disappointing because a lot of gay people work for him. It’s just sad. I thought he could have done better for his country than just go to the lowest common denominator and stir up the crap. It’s our country, it’s not wrestling. If you try and make our president fail, it doesn’t matter who he is, you make our country fail. And if you really are a patriot, if you really give a sh*t about our country, you don’t do stuff like that. First of all, you’re an entertainer, and you make ugly buildings, and you’re famous for it. And you have a reality show with very high ratings. Don’t step into the forum like that. Become educated with facts. Don’t just be a sh*t-stirrer. Our country is in trouble and he keeps wanting to make [Obama] fail. Let’s call a spade a spade. The guy’s a black man and that’s your issue? What kind of idiot are you? Come on.”

Richard Socarides, who was Clinton's aide on LGBT issues in 1996 when the Defense of Marriage Act was signed, writes about Clinton's journey on gay rights issues, and why he signed the discriminatory law.

Inside the White House, there was a genuine belief that if the President vetoed the Defense of Marriage Act, his reëlection could be in jeopardy. There was a heated debate about whether this was a realistic assessment, but it became clear that the President’s chief political advisers were not willing to take any chances. Some in the White House pointed out that DOMA, once enacted, would have no immediate practical effect on anyone—there were no state-sanctioned same-sex marriages then for the federal government to ignore. I remember a Presidential adviser saying that he was not about to risk a second term on a veto, however noble, that wouldn’t change a single thing nor make a single person’s life better.

What we didn’t fully comprehend was that, sooner than anyone imagined, there would be thousands of families who would be harmed by DOMA—denied federal benefits, recognition, and security, or kept apart by immigration laws.

During the campaign season, Clinton would sometimes complain publicly about how the Republicans were using the marriage issue against him. He said, derisively, that it was “hardly a problem that is sweeping the country” and his press secretary called it “gay baiting, pure and simple.” And that September, when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, President Clinton signed it.

There are no pictures of this occasion—no pens that were saved. My advice to the people who arranged for these things was to get it done and out of the way as quickly as possible; he signed it late at night one evening after returning from a day-long campaign trip...